“Celebrity Apprentice” Episode 3 – An Adver-what?!

This week’s “Celebrity Apprentice” recap is written by Amy Hummell. Amy is the Arizona Director at Autism Speaks and has kept up with The Apprentice ever since its first show.

What an interesting episode of “Celebrity Apprentice” …

Starting where they left off last week, everyone was trying to guess who would be fired. The consensus was Bret “Every Rose Has its Thorn” Michaels, but then he appeared and Sinbad did not. We then cut away to Maria Kanellis, who is meeting with John Paul, a youngster who was diagnosed with acute lymphoma leukemia at the age of five. His wish, being granted by Make-A-Wish Foundation, is to meet Donald Trump (interesting, for a five-year-old). Maria said we will see him again at the finale show and he will get to meet “The Donald.” In the meantime, he had the task of delivering $20,000 to the home offices!

The episode’s theme was identity theft and the celebrities were to make a 4-page advertorial, choose a celebrity spokesperson and then present their photos, ad, and ideas to the executives from Norton and Lifelock. (Whew!) It could have helped to receive a formal definition of “advertorial” (foreshadowing), but nonetheless, the teams perservered. Summer volunteered to lead the women and Darryl Strawberry nominated Michael Johnson (more foreshadowing). Also, instead of Ivanka this week, we were treated to Gavin Maalouf, of The Palms Hotel & Casino and the Sacramento Kings.

At first, everyone was excited for Summer to lead them. But then they were waiting for Summer to lead them … and waiting and waiting. Although Summer is a great of a communicator and super organized, she truly struggled with the vision and message of this project for this campaign. I mean, seriously, she heard about it four hours before and she couldn’t get it together?! Then she started complaining about Cyndi Lauper again and all of her monotonous questions – doesn’t Summer remember one of Cyndi’s best friends is Rosie O’Donnell?

Michael Johnson, on the other hand, was crisp and clean with an overall vision and delegation expertise. (Much smoother than last week with Sinbad.) The trouble started when Bret Michaels began asking questions and spouting thoughts – basically coming up with all sorts of ideas, some quite good, that simply weren’t Michael’s ideas. Bret took a backseat, only to have Former Gov. Rod step up to let people know that he isn’t really good at anything. The former Governor of Illinois can’t type and he can’t help himself from saying hello to people on the street. The guys keep thinking it is a political thing, but we know the truth – self importance and need for the limelight!

Sharon Osborne is chosen as the celebrity spokesperson from the ladies team to become “The Protector.” Curtis Stone was chosen for the men’s team as the spokesperson since he is hip and now. Curtis is the “everyday man” while the product was faster than Michael Johnson and stronger than Goldberg.

Then the work really got started – Maria and Cyndi went to go get props. When Cyndi shows the ladies at the store “the face,” they immediately receive a $100 discount. Cyndi then carries everything and Maria declares this to be the Cyndi Lauper Workout 101. Darryl and Rod go out for the props needed by the boys’ team, but the only excitement is when Gov. Rod keeps introducing himself to people.

Our hero, Holly Robinson Peete, seemed to be the glue, especially when it came to technology- with those long nails clacking away on the keyboard trying to get the Powerpoint finished. Of course, the computer hookup did not work through the house audio visual. It did get going and then, once again, Sharon Osborne burst into a coughing fit!

On the boys’ side, Bret was working with the graphic artist and coming up with cool ideas that Michael Johnson didn’t want. They went with his idea of keeping to the letter of the law for the definition of an advertorial. Who knew Michael was so smart? He said he would read every word from the word-heavy ad, and we believe him. The trouble is there aren’t many people like him any longer. Short, picture 1,000 words, etc. – that is what consumers read and comprehend.

In the board room, the men looked very dapper in their suits and ties, while the girls wore black pant suits with the bright gold yellow t-shirts emblazoned with the company logo on the front. In the end, the executives liked the women’s idea better so Summer took the win with $20,000 for Right to Play. In addition, as the winning team, all of the new products will have a portion of their sales go towards Right to Play, too.

It was time for the men to face the music – this is where it gets strange.

Everyone thought Michael Johnson was such an incredible leader that they didn’t know who to fire. So Darryl Strawberry spoke up, thinking he was making a point and asked to be fired. He was tired and he wanted to let Michael continue to excel. Perhaps since he nominated Michael, his failing and being fired would have been too much for him and his ego. Crazy cat, indeed!

The saddest part was that Darryl Strawberry was playing for The Darryl Strawberry Foundation, which supports people affected by autism. This being said, Holly Robinson Peete was personally disappointed.

As I said in the beginning, it was an interesting night on the Celebrity Apprentice indeed!

Would you like to be next week’s guest blogger? Send your recap of “Celebrity Apprentice” to editors@autismspeaks.org, prior to 8 a.m. next Monday. We will select our favorite for posting here.